Mr Waters, of Stapeley, was found dead at Burnt House Farm, Tabley, on June 19, 2003.

Jurors were told he had suffered 123 injuries including 24 broken ribs. He was said to have been tortured and killed over a £20,000 drug debt.

The prosecution called evidence that he was hung, beaten, whipped, burned

with acid and attacked with a staple gun before being killed in front of his son and daughter.

Matthews was jailed for life in February last year after being convicted of murder after a retrial and was also found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to another man, Suleman Razak.

He denied murder and involvement in the attack on Mr Razak and has already twice stood trial for the alleged crimes, with the first jury unable to agree a verdict.

In sentencing Matthews, Mr Justice David Clarke described the killing as sadistic and the violence used as 'gratuitous and extreme.' He was ordered to serve 24 years behind bars before he could apply for parole.

James Stuart Raven, 44, of Manchester, and John Godfrey Wilson, 54, of Glossop, were convicted of the murder at an earlier trial and were given life sentences.

But Matthews' lawyers argued his conviction should be quashed because of the circumstances in which his legal team had withdrawn from the case at the retrial.